Gravel wins the Jokers Wild program at Eldora

Rossburg, OH – (July 14, 2016) – David Gravel started off the 33rd annual Kings Royal weekend in style by winning the “Jokers Wild” feature Thursday night with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series at Eldora Speedway. While the box score shows Gravel leading every lap, it was far from easy having to hold off multiple challengers including a final lap effort by defending World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz for the victory driving the CJB Motorsports owned/Big Game Tree Stands sponsored entry.

For Gravel the race was not only mentally tiring but physical exhausting towards the end as his car was experiencing power steering issues.

“(Schatz) made me get my elbows up there. I had run the top of three and four to keep my speed up. We had a power steering leak, power steering was going away, and I was starting to get tired at the end with the power steering going away,” said Gravel. “I can’t thank my guys enough. Derek, Barry, and Austin. Chad and Jen Clemens put me in this car. It’s been a great season, we’ve three bad nights all year, other than that we’ve been awesome. We’ve been really good the past few times (at Eldora), we tried something a little different, and we won tonight. Hopefully we can carry that on all weekend.”

From his front row starting spot Gravel drove down the banking into the lead on the initial star with Brian Brown, Schatz, Christopher Bell, and Rico Abreu in tow. Bell tried to get a look under Schatz through turn three, but could not make the pass. Bell lost his momentum and soon had to contend with Kerry Madsen throwing his own Eldora slide job on Bell, but Bell countered on the other end of the race track to move back into fourth.

Eight laps into the feature Gravel began to overtake slower cars while Bell and Abreu continued to race for fourth.

As the racing through traffic progressed Brown found himself under fire from Schatz and Bell for the second spot. Schatz went by Brown for second on lap 11 and while Bell blasted around the top to relegate Brown to fourth.

Just as Schatz was preparing to mount a challenge for the lead the caution appeared for Tim Shaffer slowing in turns one and two on lap 12. Just before the caution Bell bounced off the turn two wall in a shower of sparks and slowed. After going to the pit area Bell’s first run in the Tony Stewart Racing 14 car ended with rear suspension damage.

Gravel and Schatz raced side by side into turn one during the restart as Schatz attempted a slide job for the lead. Gravel crossed and countered Schatz’s challenge while Madsen shot up into third around Abreu. Behind them Schuchart was trolling the bottom from 12th starting position and moved into the fifth spot.

Madsen and Schatz began exchanging sliders for second when the caution appeared for Sheldon Haudenschild stopping in turn three. Haudenschild retired pit side.

Gravel pulled away from Schatz during the restart and built up a straightaway lead while Abreu moved past Madsen for third. Schuchart put pressure on Madsen one lap later in turn one, but got sideways as Madsen was able to pull away to hold the position.

With 10 laps to go Gravel closed in on the tail end of the field again as Schatz slowly began to real him in. With five laps to go Gravel found himself under pressure from Schatz and third place Abreu while navigating slower traffic. Gravel kept driving inches from Eldora’s unforgiving concrete and eventually cleared the lapped car of Brent Marks as Schatz was held up by three laps to go. While that appeared to be the move Gravel needed to open up enough distance between himself and Schatz one lap later Gravel was held up while trying to lap Randy Hannagan. Schatz pounced on the opportunity as the pair came to the white flag nose to tail. Schatz set Gravel up for a slide job in turns three and four, but Gravel used his momentum to edge Schatz for the victory. Schatz held on for second while Abreu, Madsen, and Schuchart rounded out the top five.

Afterwards Gravel felt getting through the traffic was one thing he needed to be better if he is going to put himself in position to win the Kings Royal on Saturday.

“Lapped traffic really slowed me down, but I just tried to keep my pace up,” said Gravel. “I slid Hannagan and I know I lost all my speed there. I have to fix that in lapped traffic to be better. I probably had a little bit of a lead there and lost it. Just have to do lapped traffic better and give me a bit of a safety net because obviously Donny was really close.”

Kerry Madsen and David Gravel were the fastest drivers in the two qualifying groups with Madsen being the fastest overall with a lap of 13.488 seconds. Schatz, Bell, Gravel, and Ian Madsen won the heat race events. Jac Haudenschild won the C-Main, Gravel won the Dash, and Sammy Swindell won the Last Chance Showdown.